I bought an ancient 16 quart canner at a garage sale last spring. It’s a Presto from before they were Presto, the 92 year old lady had owned it since the 30’s or thereabouts. Payed a whopping $2 for the whole shebang complete with weight, basket, and spacer for the bottom. Had to put a new gauge and a new lid seal on it, which I was happy to find both in stock at a nearby ACE.
Canned a bunch of odds and sods deer parts when we were having the butcherthon after rifle season when we had 3 deer hanging at once. Was impressed and amazed at how little work it took to make such good eats. Melt in your mouth tender chunks made out of previously unchewable parts like neck roasts and lower leg muscles. Way easier than getting it all ready to grind.
So a few weeks ago I’m out and about and happen into some of them damn pigs and kill one of about 150 pounds. I took the loins since I couldn’t get the truck to her and wasn’t making two trips. Brought them home and washed them up and kinda forgot about them in the reefer for about 5 days when it dawned on me that I needed to get busy and take care of that meat. So I cut them into sections about the length of a pint Mason and sliced those longways into strips like you might for fajitas. Stuffed them into jars and topped with some salt and taco seasoning and run them through the old canner for 1 1/2 hours at #12 pressure.
A couple days later my wife and I both worked late so I tossed a can in a skillet with the broth from the jar and added a diced onion. I put a little more seasoning over it and stuck the lid on it. In 5 minutes the onions were tender and the meat hot so we spooned it into tortillas and had what turned out to be some of the best pork tacos I’ve ever eaten. Absolutely excellent and the best part was that it only took maybe 10 minutes total from start to time to eat.
We liked it so much I went and shot a 40 pound pig out of a big group 2 nights ago and brought it home whole. Got it skinned and quartered and in the icebox, tomorrow it’ll get boned and canned. All of it.
If you live where there’s pigs or heck even if you don’t you can buy pork on the cheap at the store, and you owe it to yourself to try it out. I don’t know how I’ve survived my entire life without a pressure cooker.
